Oct
3
You may recall my post from a week or two ago when I talked about blogs as credible news sources. I consider blogs and social media to be in the same ballpark, because after all, blogs are social and community driven as well.
After posting an article about CareerBuilder gaming Twitter at WebProNews, and talking about how social media legitimacy was deteriorating as a result of social sites not better policing their sites, I got into something of a debate with one of the commenters, who claims that there never has been or ever will be any legitimacy to social media as a news source. Obviously, that is a notion I disagree with.
Of course , seemingly right on cue, someone upset the “Apple” cart today on iReport.com falsely reporting Steve Jobs having a heart attack that temporarily sent Apple’s stock plummeting. I also talked about this at WebProNews.
That story would seem to favor the point of the guy I was debating with, but the community factor is what led to it being disproved, which kind of illustrates my own point. To quote myself,
Where the legitimacy shines through is in the communities themselves. There are always others to call something out as BS in new media formats where discussion is the key to coming away with useful information.
When all is said and done, it is up to readers to use their heads and think about where they are getting their info. Just as has always been the case, (even long before social media, blogs, and citizen journalism were ever heard of) you shouldn’t believe everything you read. But damning an entire medium because some abuse it is just ridiculous.
Your thoughts?
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Could not agree more. Just see what that rumor posted by CNN about Apple and Steve Jobs did to the stock price!
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/apple-s-steve-jobs-rushed-to-er-after-heart-attack-says-cnn-citizen-journalist
I entirely agree with you and Nicole Price. Rumors lead to nothing good.
I have thought about this in the past. If there is a situation where people are abusing a system, one would wonder if the people abusing the system should be punished, or if the system should be revamped in a way that makes it less prone to abuse. I think a combination of these two components is the usual method of response.
[...] findings in times where citizen journalism and even social media are often criticized and dubbed illegitimate. You even have the relevancy of blogs coming into question (although, many tend to think this [...]